The Glass Slippers
by Lrenn
Summary: Anne is hiding from her past when a foreign prince is found unconscious in her garden. If Anne is to regain all she has lost, she must put her trust in a total stranger and risk facing her greatest fears and losing her wildest dreams.


**The Glass Slippers**

**Prologue**

"My child…my daughter…my…my…"

King William of Sirua held his wife's cold fingers to his mouth as her last words died on her pale lips. "Leana? Come back, my love. Wake up now. Don't leave me. Don't." Tears filled his eyes and dripped onto her skin. "I need you, darling. I need you! Wake up now, please!" The ragged words fell upon unhearing ears.

The servants looked on, tears streaming down their own faces, sharing the King's grief at the death of his Queen. The pale strained face of his beloved Leana lay unmoving beneath his wavering gaze. Her face fanned out from her head like a shimmering gold crown. Her eyes, ever still in death, locked onto his face, a final plea.

Their baby daughter whimpered painfully from the arms of a servant, a sound that pierced the young father's heart. "Leana." He cried out his wife's name over and over again. "Leana. Leana." Half crazy with grief he stumbled from the room, heart sick, terrified, alone.

Cradling the princess, the little boy sat in the corner, watching as the Queen was readied for burial. He glanced down at the baby's pert nose, pouted lips, and wide open bright blue eyes. He frowned. Even at his young age, he knew that such a vivid color in the eyes of a newborn was unusual. But blue her eyes were. Blue and bright and beautiful.

The servants ignored the two for a while, glancing over from time to time, ever alert to the child's cry. But she didn't cry. Not one sound. The heir to the throne simply stared up at the boy, blinking from time to time, completely untouched by all the hustle and bustle, seemingly content to lay in a little boy's arms.

The boy let that fact settle in and a deep feeling of possession settled over him. He may be just a servant, but he would protect this young one. He was going to keep her safe.

He was going to marry her.

* * *

**Nineteen Years Later**

With grace and quiet dignity, Anne walked down the aisle alone. She may have well been the bride, she looked so exquisite. Her auburn hair hung heavily from her head, braided with sapphires and diamonds. The blue gown, tailored especially for this occasion, rustled quietly over the dim whisperings of the bowed guests along side her. The seven white flounces at the front of the gown lay against her legs, weighing her down and she couldn't think of any place she'd rather be father from than this aisle, leading toward the alter where her father would be married.

She tried to focus on other things. For nearly twenty years, it had been just her and her father. There had been rides through parks, vacations to the ocean, laughter, and love. Anne had had everything she'd ever wanted. She'd always wondered what her mother had been like, and wished she had known her if the stories the servants and nobles told her were true. But she'd never been in need of anything. Her father had been everything she'd ever wanted or needed.

And then he had met Princess Elise of Ojiri. As Sirua and Ojiri were on the brink of war, it seemed the obvious tactic to arrange a marriage between the widowed king and the eldest daughter of his enemy. Ojiri's king was a shrewd and ruthless man, well-versed in military tactics. Many days and nights were given to negotiations of peace. In the end, William decided to give up a portion of western Sirua bordering Ojiri in exchange for Ojiri's princess. While this solidified an unbreakable alliance, it also forced Anne down a path she had no desire to tread.

Princess Elise was twenty-six years younger than William. She was just twenty, a mere year older than Anne herself. As Anne turned at the altar to watch the bride walk down the aisle, she tried to keep the bile from rising in her throat. Twenty-six years! What was her father thinking?

Then again, watching the young woman walk gracefully down the aisle, Anne couldn't help but be struck by her beauty. Her ivory gown clung to her slender frame in all the right places and the white tiger's fur around the edges glistened with thousands of priceless gems sewn into the trim. Her coal black eyes glittered with self-satisfaction, or fear. Anne couldn't decide.

Silence accompanied the queen-to-be down the aisle. As Elise moved closer, finally taking William's hand, Anne decided it was a definite self-satisfaction that lit the young woman's eyes. A coil of uneasiness unfurled in Anne's stomach.

She glanced out over the crowd, her eyes searching. Near the back, just barely in her line of sight, she caught Christian's eye. She fought the urge to grimace, holding her serene expression in place as she spoke to Christian with her eyes. _Get me out of here!_ Her heart pleaded. _Don't let my father marry Elise! Do something to stop this!_

Christian's only response, whether he had, somehow, heard her pleas or not, was to shake his head slightly with a small shrug.

Anne turned her gaze back to the altar where Elise stood erect and breathtakingly beautiful beside the King of Sirua. She had the feeling her life was about to change forever.


End file.
